Thanks to all who sent me a birthday greeting. MUCH appreciated. I hope you all have happy birthdays too! The summer is 'a comin' and it's great to have the windows and doors open at the studio. We're finally into recording! We have 17 new songs to capture and backing tracks are going well. I'm singing for between four and seven hours each day. Try it - it's the vocal equivalent of marathon running..

At the time of writing we're about half way through recording the basic tracks. Sounding good.. Next will come the overdubs and this is the point where the songs will really come to life. I guess we'll spend the summer and autumn working on this process.

Because I'm not involved in all of it, I'll finally have a little time to myself and I can write some new solo material. The h band will embark on another mini-tour in late September too! Exciting times..